Why Aussie decided to ditch Australia and move to Japan

An Australian man sick of the unaffordable houses in the country has revealed how he managed to snag his dream property for just $6,000 in Japan. 

Matt Guy, 40, snapped up the two-storey home in the Myoko Kogen ski region, 267km northwest of Tokyo, in mid-2023.

The home was built in the 1960s and previously belonged to an elderly couple who were eager for someone to take it off their hands.

The property required several renovations, particularly to its bathroom, and Mr Guy has spent the last few years completing them.

He’s since dedicated his time to helping other Aussies drowning in the housing market escape to more affordable areas.

Mr Guy, an ex-tradie, first visited Japan in 2010 for six weeks – three of which he spent snowboarding.

He returned in 2014 to enrol in a year-long language course and again in 2016 to work as an English teacher.

Mr Guy made his love of Japan official in 2023 when he decided to permanently settle there.

Matt Guy (pictured) bought a home in Japan’s Myoko Kogen ski region, 267km northwest of Tokyo, for $6,000

He and his Japanese wife live in their Myoko Kogen home and he works primarily as a content creator.

Mr Guy’s home is located near the ski slopes and has easy access to Tokyo via bullet train.

‘My next-door neighbour is a sushi restaurant,’ he told Business Insider. 

‘Two doors down, there’s a soba restaurant. My local hospital is about 35 seconds’ walk away. The pharmacy is across the street from that. 

‘The post office is 15 seconds’ walk away.’

As an extra bonus, the previous owners left several plants, pieces of furniture and kitchenware for him to keep.

The house also boasts three bedrooms, several living spaces and a large garage.

‘I came here without an intention to buy anything, but it just lined up that this house became available,’ Mr Guy said.

Mr Guy bought the three-bedroom home (pictured) from an elderly couple in mid 2023

Japan has seen a boom in Australian tourism since the end of the Covid pandemic.

Nearly a million Aussies visited Japan in 2024, marking a 50 per cent jump from 2023.

Australian National University’s Australia-Japan Research Centre director Dr Shiro Armstrong earlier this year explained Japan’s low cost of living was likely a drawing card for many Aussies.

‘You hear lots of Australian accents in Tokyo and many bars and restaurants are getting used to serving Australians,’ he told the ABC.

‘Eating out is very affordable compared to Australia because of the low wage costs – Japan has only recently escaped decades of mild deflation so prices have barely changed since 1990 – and the food, as everyone knows, is amazing.

‘The tourist flows used to be dominated by Japanese visitors to Australia but with Japanese economic stagnation and the weak yen, we’ve seen a reversal since before Covid that’s only becoming more pronounced.’

As immigration into Australia under the Albanese government continues to soar, more Australians have been looking overseas to achieve their homeowner dreams.

Jimmy Mitchell, 36, and wife Pauline, 35, previously told Daily Mail Australia they  were willing to quit their ‘stereotypical lifestyle’ in Western Australia to travel around South East Asia with their two sons.

Mr Guy and his wife permanently live in Myoko Kogen (pictured) where he works as a content creator

‘In Australia we earned good money – this is the thing I couldn’t get my head around. We had good jobs but we always felt like we weren’t getting ahead,’ Jimmy said.

‘The more I worked and the harder I worked to earn the money so we could have the stuff, the less time I got to spend with my family.’

In 2023, the couple were renting a four-bedroom house in Mandurah, an hour south of Perth, and working hard to save for a house deposit.

The stress would sometimes reduce Jimmy to tears, and it was only getting ‘progressively worse’.

‘I’d come home and say to Pauline, “I can’t keep living like this anymore”. And that was a combination of the fact that we were both working in the business, the kids were at school and we had barely seen each other,’ he said.

The following year the family were able to travel through Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand and shared plans to visit Japan and Hawaii this year.

They attribute their ability to explore to the comparatively low cost of living outside of Australia.